A little while back the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act" was passed. The law enabled the Federal Drug Administration to more strictly regulate the cigarette industry. The teeth of the law (among other things) require FDA approval for such modifying words as "light" and "mild", ban flavored tobacco in anything defined as a cigarette and require tobacco packaging to cover 50% of the front and rear of the pack with warnings such as the one seen above. Or this one:
*Smoking also kills puppies.
The thing about the flavoring was aimed to eliminate flavored cigarettes that would appeal to children such as root beer, grape and bubble gum. This part of the law however also banned blended cigarettes containing ingredients such as cloves and other niche varieties of cigarettes clearly not geared towards children. There was one flavor of cigarette however that wasn't banned. Mint. Yes, menthol cigarettes somehow passed muster as unflavored. Whatever.
I find these new warnings extremely insulting. It's no secret that the law has increasingly infringed on business' right to sell an otherwise legal product through regulation and taxation. (I recently learned that a pack of smokes in NYC will set you back $12. Twelve bucks!) But these new warnings clearly indicate that anything is fair game. As a consumer and an American though I don't want to be treated like a freakin baby. If something is legal, let me buy it and enjoy it how I want, free of guilt-trips and gross-outs. Why can't all this effort spent on de-incentivizing cigarette use (E.G. scare tactics, exorbitant taxation, etc) be spent on incentivizing non-use?
Let me get this disclaimer out there. I don't smoke. It never really did anything for me. Occasionally, I'll bum a smoke, smoke it half way and remind myself that I'm not missing anything. The lingering odor of cigarette smoke in my parents' garage reminds me of the holidays and fresh cigarette smoke in a hot car takes me back to summer visits at my grandparents. One of my grandmothers died of lung cancer at 75. It's bad, for everybody.
*Although cheese steaks and combos killed this guy.
While I agree that we should be free to make our own decisions, as a former smoker I can see the positive effect these gross-out tactics could have on a smoker who wants to quit yet can't muster the will to follow through. Sometimes we need tangible evidence because we are innately stubborn and lazy. I'd even like to contribute a new idea for the labels, toilet water with smoker's cough phlegm floaties (Red Robin, yummmm).
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